There are various problems associated with field dressing big game animals:
A. Opening the animal without exposing a sharp knife to the hunter's hands and/or fingers, thus causing accidental injury.
B. Opening the animal and/or cutting membranes that fasten the viscera within the animals abdominal cavity without rupturing the internal organs which can spoil or taint the animal's meat to be eaten.
C. Reaching up into the chest cavity to cut the trachea for the removal of the heart and lungs.
D. A problem exists for those hunters choosing to use plastic field dressing gloves and keeping the gloves from being cut, which can expose the hunter to the animal's bodily fluids throughout the rest of the process. The present invention addresses a desired procedure for removing the heart and lungs from a big game animals chest cavity.
It is also desirable to provide a better means of cutting other membranes for removing the viscera and and it is also desirable to provide a safer means of severing the trachea for removing the heart and lungs. The current practice involves having the hunter reach up into the chest cavity with both hands and arms. For a right handed hunter, the hunter would reach up with his/her left hand and find the trachea above the heart and lungs. Then, with a sharp knife in the right hand, move the knife in and up past the left hand to a point higher yet than the left hand.
The hunter then manipulates and turns the knife approximately 90 degrees, and cut thru the trachea. Shortcomings of such prior art approaches are as follows. The hunter must blindly push a sharp knife past his or her hand and turn the knife 90 degrees, exposing the hunter to accidental cutting. This blind manipulation of the knife for cutting, further exposes the hunter's hands/fingers to danger.
Also the hunter's field dressing gloves can be easily cut, exposing the hunter's skin and clothing to the animal's blood. Additionally, using a sharp knife to cut through the sternum dulls the blade edge, rendering the knife less useful for the remaining field dressing procedure.
However, hunters that wish to mount their big game will not cut through the sternum as it ruins the cape.